Sotto Voce
by Hth
I was mute when you met me, and you think you know why
Stolen voice, stolen heart, and I was lost in translation
My tongue was a bird in your cage
Its new-fledged wings fluttering flightless inside my mouth
Do you remember when 0 and 1 were shapes
And you made stick figures with them in brightly colored wax?
Before your mind was digital, and endless rivers of code
Ran through you, bringing you all knowledge?
I remember my dancing days, deaf-mute days,
And the moment when I first understood that fine static,
Felt it coalesce into repetition and meaning, and sounds
Became my obsession, and speech fast on the heels of sound
But words were indecently naked when I spoke them
Language enticed me, fine-skinned and organic words,
Until my own voice victimized them, pierced and bruised
And tattooed my clumsy art over their inborn prettiness
While you were falling in love with me, I was growing wings
And my every thought became long-legged and delicate,
A flock of herons by the endless river of codes and keys
Bending their necks low to drink that crucial symbolism
Now at last I drink from you, my cup of all knowledge,
My digital chalice, my binary love, the curve and the line united
By one round drop of paint and one flat thread of brush.
While you sleep in my arms, I count the infinite rounds & flats of you
When you trace those keys and symbols, A, B, C, Omega
On my back, each letter is an icon that words must worship
And carry the weight of, and put great store by
While my silences remain damp-footed birds who can suddenly fly.